Today, we left our historic El Rancho Hotel and began our drive to the Petrified Forest National Park. Once we arrived at the park, we saw the Painted Desert, Blue Mesa and the Rainbow Forest. The colors of the rocks were striated and the desert landscape was home to juniper trees that dotted the landscape. We learned about the formation of petrified wood from ancient trees and saw advanced petroglyphs in the stone. We took .3 mile, 1 mile, and 1.6 mile walks through ancient pueblos and forests throughout the drive. When we arrived at the primary concentration of petrified wood, we walked around the beautiful rocks. We learned about the formation of the multicolored hills and examined water passageways. Afterwards, we ate at Aliberto’s for a southwestern lunch. Then we continued our drive to Flagstaff. Upon arriving at our hotel, we ordered pizza and salads and had a night inside our hotel.

Love from Flagstaff, AZ,
Brooke (and the Southwest Group)